


and so we meet again

by theoneinquisitor



Series: tumblr prompts [7]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Halloween prompt, Minor Minty, fic inspired by the slutty pumpkin from HIMYM, minor sea mechanic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 13:35:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14113467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoneinquisitor/pseuds/theoneinquisitor
Summary: Bellamy and Clarke happen to only see each other on halloween and over the years, it becomes a strange relationship.





	and so we meet again

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr prompt:Halloween party with the gang! Bellamy and Clarke aren't exactly friends, but he/she can't deny she/he looks great in her/his costume this year.
> 
> come hang out with me: octannibal-blake.tumblr.com

**2013**

It is on Halloween night that Bellamy decides he’s moved in to the worst apartment complex ever. He’s sitting on his couch, perfectly content to write his essay in peace and drink shitty beer. He hates this stupid holiday, always has, and would rather pretend that it’s just another day. Instead, he hears a knock on his window and turns around defensively, poised to break the glass bottle over the intruder’s head. Turns out, it’s just a pirate. Or his neighbor, dressed as a pirate, rather.

“Someone’s jumpy,” Nathan Miller comments, holding his hand (one actual hand, and one fake hook) up in surrender, “Chill, dude.”

He sets the bottle down on the table with a deep breath, “Do you make it a habit to enter other people’s apartments unannounced?”

Miller shrugs, “Isn’t that kind of the point of sharing a fire escape?”

Bellamy rolls his eyes. He only moved into this apartment over the summer. His sister just began her first semester of college at NYU and he has been finishing his Master’s degree at Columbia (honestly, thank God both of them are smart because they couldn’t just afford this kind of education on their own). They decided to rent an apartment in the city, thanks to a heft amount of help from their grandparents and working full time at the pub in the basement. The day they moved in, they met their neighbors. Nathan Miller, the broody full-time mechanic and his boyfriend, Monty. The IT guy. That’s how Miller introduced him, anyways.

“Let’s go,” Miller gestures and begins to move back out the window. Bellamy doesn’t follow. He might like his neighbors, and sure they’ve had a few nights in playing Mario Kart on the 64, but now he comes in dressed as a pirate and just tells Bellamy to follow him? Sounds sketchy.

“Where?”

Miller stops and turns around dramatically and holds up his hook hand, “Costume party. On the roof. It’s an annual thing. Everybody in the building goes.”

“No thanks,” he responds.

Ten minutes later he’s on the damn roof, music blaring out of someone’s own personal amp and chatter filling the empty space. It’s a very well put together party and it does seem like everyone in the building is in attendance – he shouldn’t be surprised. It’s a cheap complex close to college campus. Broke college students fill most of the rooms and this is very much the kind of things college kids would do. Unless you’re Bellamy, because fuck Halloween.

He sips from his drink stoically, rolling his eyes at some of the costumes. Some of them are pretty typical – he’s seen multiple Avenger’s costumes. Plenty of sexy nurses (which, he is absolutely not opposed to). He isn’t the kind of guy to dress up, though. It’s just lucky that he happened to be wearing a t-shirt that says “costume” when Miller basically drug him from his apartment.

“Nice costume,” a voice enters into his dramatic reverie. Next to him, a blonde princess is filling her cup with the shitty vodka punch. She adjusts her tiara as it begins to fall off her head and looks up at him with a smirk. She makes no movement to leave, just leans against the table and gives him a solid once over. Apparently, she does not appreciate his t-shirt and jeans.

“Not into costume parties?” she asks.

He shrugs, “Not into Halloween.”

This makes her roll her eyes at him, “Wow, you’re one of those people.”

One of those people? He glares at her for a moment, “If one of those people means not wanting to contribute to a stupid holiday, then yeah, I am.”

“What’s not to like! Free candy. An excuse to dress up. Big parties?” the Princess seems to very much into Halloween, her costume speaking volumes. And she sounds like he had been personally attacking her when he said he didn’t like it. He’s entitled to an opinion.

“Over priced candy, expensive outfits you only wear once, and not to mention some of those outfits appropriate multiple cultures and are thinly veiled racism,” he points out. He’s put a lot of thought into this over the years. Everything about Halloween is annoying and overrated.

“Wow,” she breathes out, clearly surprised by his passionate answer, “You really have a lot of feelings about this.”

“I’m just a realist,” he shrugs again, “This punch is terrible.”

“I can agree with that,” she says before making a show of chugging her own cup, “But it tastes better the drunker you are.”

He gets another cup. The Princess makes no show of going away to enjoy the dance floor or the free candy offered. Instead she remains at the drink table with him and somehow, they end up talking about extremely…intense topics. She’s in nursing school and apparently, hates every minute of it. He tells her about failing his last exam because he was working too many hours at the bar. It becomes a bit pessimistic at times. She decides to change the subject before he does.

“I know it’s a mask,” she says after spotting a ridiculous Barack Obama costume, “But it feels wrong to dress up as the President. Like they’re trying to insult him.”

“Would you say the same if someone came dressed as George Bush?” he asks, and not even because he disagrees with her. But mostly because she looks really cute the way her cheeks are flushed and her hands a flailing around trying to explain ethics to him.

“I would probably feel differently about that,” she points to the Obama mask wearing offender, “If it wasn’t a white person.”

He lifts his cup to her, “Touché.”

He decides he likes this Princess, even if she is a Halloween supporter. She’s got spunk. She’s feisty and she’s making the party somewhat bearable. Yet, somehow, only an hour has passed at the drink table before her phone goes off.

“I gotta run,” she says downing the rest of her drink and tossing the cup in the trash, “But thanks for entertaining me. Do you still hate Halloween?”

“That’s not changing,” he responds immediately. She only grins at that.

“Oh, I think it will.”

*

**2014**

He finds that he really likes his apartment. Miller becomes one of his closest friend, a sort of friendship he hadn’t experienced in a long time. Not since Raven Reyes decided to go be an engineer at some prestigious college on the coast. He enjoys having Miller around and even Monty has made an effort to include Bellamy in his D&D group. It’s not something he thought he would enjoy but actually, he loves it. Octavia stays pretty busy with school and hasn’t been home much, so he’s been forced to occupy his time with other things. Nerdy things, as his sister called them. He doesn’t really care. He feels like he’s finding a home at this place.

They go to the rooftop again for Halloween this year and he isn’t forced this time. Miller and Monty go as two video game characters he’s never heard of, which is very them, and he keeps his costume. Miller rolls his eyes at the familiar orange t-shirt but doesn’t make him change. That’s a true friend. When they arrive, there are a few more people than last year and there seems to be two speakers instead of one. They’re trying to make it a bit more exciting, according to Monty, but Bellamy thinks it’s just right.

He might be down to party, he still hates this holiday and probably will until the day he dies. Seriously, what was the fucking point of it? He leaves his friends to grab a drink and though he remembers how disgusting the punch was last year, he still pours himself a cup. Yep, just as disgusting.

“Nice outfit,” is how it starts once again. He turns to find the princess once again pouring herself a drink. It takes him a moment to recognize her, she’s got a brown wig twisted on the side of her head. Princess Leia. How original.

“I could say the same to you,” he comments with a scoff. She moves next to him, the whole things feeling very much like a routine between the two of them despite being strangers. He hadn’t seen her since last Halloween. He figured she must have moved on with her life, whatever that may be. Apparently, she just makes appearances at the Halloween party.

“Princess Leia is a badass,” she defends, and the spell begins again. He isn’t sure what it is about her. She has a way of making him feel as though they’re old friends catching up – she updates him a nursing school and he tells her about finishing undergrad and completing his Master’s. She tells him about wanting to be an artist but being pressured into nursing. He tells her about raising his sister. It’s all pretty fucking ridiculous considering he doesn’t even know her name.

“You wanna dance?” she asks during a comfortable silence between them. Normally, he would say no. But he finds himself nodding and following her to the dance floor.

“You a fan of Halloween yet?” she asks as he twirls her around to the sounds of Monster Mash.

“Hell no,” he responds, “You’ll have to try a little harder, Princess.”

She smirks at that, “Did you not get to trick or treat as a kid?”

He dips her and she giggles, “Not really. Not a great neighborhood for getting candy. Might end up with a bag of meth instead.”

He doesn’t mean to get all serious. He’s just being honest. His mom worked hard to provide for them but they didn’t grow up in a great area. Not the kind of place to hang out and play baseball outside or anything. He’s okay with that. But she gives him a pitying look and he lets go of her hand.

“I didn’t say it to make you feel bad for me,” he grumbles defensively, and he’s surprised when she gives him a soft smile.

“Oh, I don’t,” she reassures him and he can’t help but feel a bit confused. She smiles, “I just think it’s all the more reason for you to give Halloween a chance now that you’re older.”

He chuckles at that, “You’re awfully determined.”

“This is my favorite holiday.”

“We all have our flaws,” he responds, and she gives him a playful shove and he grabs her hand. For a moment things are silent and he feels a magnetic pull towards her. Something about her intrigues him and okay, she’s beautiful with her expressive blue eyes and soft smile. Just as his lips brush against hers, her phone rings. She jumps back and stares at the screen, something changing in her face. She looks almost…sad.

“I have to take this,” she says apologetically. Before he can question her any further, she disappears.

She doesn’t come back.

*

**2015**

He finds himself choosing to celebrate Halloween, or rather, choosing to celebrate on behalf of someone else. Gina, his girlfriend, had been adamant about doing something fun for the holiday. She likes dressing up and having a good time and hell, he doesn’t want to be the one to stop her. So, rather than go out and spend money he doesn’t have at some bar, he figured the rooftop party would be just the place.

It’s more of a spectacle this year. Some of the residents of the complex created a committee to help spruce it up and when he arrives, it’s a vast difference from the past small soirees. There are lights strung up around the roof top, more patio furniture had been added. There’s a DJ (though it’s just Monty’s friend Jasper who also plays D&D on Wednesdays). There also seems to be more people, but this has it’s perks. Instead of cheap beer and shitty punch there is more variety at the drink table. There are bottles and bottles of liquor followed by liters of soft drinks. Part of him thinks having a table to mix your own drinks is an awful idea, but he plans on standing guard at the drink table, anyway.

“Let’s dance!” Gina pleads with him when they arrive. The music is loud and pop-y and the dance floor is littered with awful costumes and awkward people. He would rather stab out his eyes.

“My brother doesn’t dance,” Octavia says from behind them and when he turns around, he’s ready to have an aneurysm. She’s wearing an intricate bathing suit top with a long, green sequined skirt. She has scales painted on her face. A fucking mermaid.

“When did you pierce your belly button?” is all he can say, hating the silver piece of jewelry currently dangling from her navel. She’s an adult, he knows that, but it’s still his baby sister and Jesus, isn’t she cold?!

“Come on, Gina,” Octavia rolls her eyes and pulls his girlfriend to the dance floor. He stomps his way to the drink table because, yeah, it’s going to be a long night.

He decides to start off with a Jack and Coke, because the old legends say drinking beer first thing is the sure way to get sick. And, okay, he’s tested that theory before and it is definitely accurate. He takes his spot next to the drink table and tries to take a drink, unsuccessfully, when his ears nearly fall of his head. Stupid costume.

“Nice outfit,”

He turns automatically to have his suspicions confirmed. The Princess stands before him, pouring her drink and grinning at him like an idiot as she takes in his costume. Gina had really insisted on dressing up for this and honestly, he really wants to make her happy because she’s a cool chick and he likes her a lot. So when she suggested they go as bugs bunny and Lola bunny, he wasn’t really against it. He likes Space Jam and it’s a simple costume. So he let her order a pair of bunny ears for him and let he glue a tail to a pair of his old basketball shorts. He’s a good boyfriend.

He’s about to bite out a “thanks” when he notices what she’s wearing. There is no wig. No tiara. Instead her blonde hair is all natural, cut just below the chin and her effort in a costume minimal this year. His jaw snaps shut when he reads the orange t-shirt she’s wearing. It reads, “Costume”.

“Very funny,” he deadpans, and it only causes her to grin in triumph.

“Thanks,” she laughs, “For the inspiration, I mean. I’m someone who hates Halloween.”

“Yeah,” he rolls his eyes, “I got that.”

“You should be flattered,” she says as though it’s obvious, “I couldn’t have done this without you.”

“Thanks for the credit.”

It’s strange how they fall into an easy conversation after that, like last year they hadn’t been about to make out on the dance floor and she hadn’t just disappeared. He had thought about her for weeks after that, tempted to try and find her one way or the other. But then he met Gina and he pushed all thoughts of the Princess away from his mind. Until now, as she stands before him in a costume influenced by his dry humor and pessimism. He can’t help but feel a little flattered, after all.

She asks him about his year and he tells her all the fine details, issues in his department at school and getting offered to study abroad for a semester. That’s something he hadn’t even told Gina but with her, it comes out like it’s no big deal. She congratulates him on the opportunity and tells him about her own experience – she’s a nurse and got the opportunity to go to the Caribbean to help in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Talking to her makes him feel like he’s talking to a figment of his imagination. It’s easy to get lost and that’s pretty damn scary.

He doesn’t even notice when Gina comes up behind him.

“Bell?” she asks warily, looking between him and the Princess uncomfortably. He gives her a reassuring smile.

“Hey,” he puts an arm around her and she melts into him immediately, “I was just talking about you.”

Mostly about how scared he is to tell her about being away for three months, but still. He doesn’t want her to feel neglected or anything. He likes her. A lot.

“You wanna get out of here?” Gina asks leaning into him, her breath hot on his neck. He looks over her head for a moment to at least say goodbye to the Princess, maybe even get her name because now she knows a little too much about him. But she’s gone already, having slipped away as Gina rolled into them. He turns his attention back to his girlfriend and gives her soft kiss.

“Sure.”

*

**2016**

“I came all the way here to go to this stupid rooftop party, so you’re going to take me!”

Raven Reyes is a lot of things. A spitfire, for one, ready to kick any and everyone’s ass at any given moment. She’s also demanding, something he learned early on in their friendship to deal with. Except today. Because he’s really not in the fucking mood.

“Go with Octavia,” he mutters under his breath, clicking into the next episode of New Girl without a second thought. It’s once again his least favorite holiday and he had a really shitty day at work. It’s his first semester as a teacher at the high school and the kids were extra rambunctious today. He’s got one hell of a headache.

“Bellamy, get your ass up and let’s go,” she yanks the remote from his hand and begins to pull on his arms, “You can wear your stupid ironic t-shirt for all I care, we’re going.”

He finds himself on the roof again. It’s been a year of ups and downs for him. He studied abroad in Greece, which has to be the highlight because it is probably the second best experience of his life (the first being when he held his baby sister for the first time – he’s a sap and he doesn’t care). He graduated with his Master’s in history and had just begun his first teaching gig. On the downside, Octavia moved in with her boyfriend, Lincoln, and he had to pay double the rent for almost three months before finding a new roommate. His name is John Murphy and he’s almost positive he’s a sociopath, but a cool sociopath once you get to know him. Gina also broke up with him about three weeks before he left for his trip. Long distance wasn’t really her thing. He doesn’t blame her.

Raven decided to come visit him for the first time in two years, mostly because she and her boyfriend just broke up and she needed time away. But also because she missed him and he had been in a foul mood for the past few months and needed cheering up.

He makes his way to the drink table and takes up his usual post after introducing Raven to all the regulars. When he introduces her to Luna, his downstairs neighbor, well, it’s all over from there. He doesn’t see Raven again that night. But that’s not the part that bothers him. He spends over an hour at the drink table and she never shows. The princess who copied his costume and who learned his deepest secrets before his fucking name. He thought maybe this would become a thing. Like maybe she’s supposed to show up and talk him through his crisis every Halloween. It’s a stupid expectation. Hell, he’s not even positive she’s real.

He finishes four drinks before giving up and going home. Fuck Halloween.

**2017**

“Please wear it!”

He stares at the offending garment like he’s hoping to burn a hole through it, “Absolutely not.”

“You’ll look so hot!”

“Ew, please don’t ever say that again.”

Raven huffs at her roommate. He’s being stubborn, he knows that, but she knows how he feels about costumes and she’s trying to force him to be part of a group costume which is just…it’s fucking cheesy.

“Please!” she begs, adjusting her own pink jackets as she pulls her hands together in a plea, “Even Murphy is doing it! Emori!”

She wants him to dress up as one of the guys from Grease, leather jacket, hair gel, and tight pants. It’s a bit over the top if you ask him. He hates it. He should have known this is how things would go when she moved in – what Raven wants, Raven gets. After last year, she decided to move to New York to be closer to her friends. She’d never admit it, but he also thinks it has something to do with Luna. The two aren’t official by any means, but they spend a lot of time together. Raven says she isn’t into labels, so whatever, but he knows the girl cares about her.

“I don’t remember ever saying I would be a part of this, you just signed me up,” he points out. She had brought it to him as soon as he got home from work. She did happen to catch him a good day, mostly because there were no students at work (it was an in-service day which meant he had a quiet classroom all to his self).  But going as the cast of Grease is a sure way of bringing his good mood down.

“We’re all doing it,” she argues again, “Besides, this is going to be the biggest party yet! Miller is proposing to Monty!”

He knows this. Miller has already been to his apartment to freak out on numerous occasions. They’ve been dating for almost seven years but only recently has marriage been legalized in all fifty states and they feel comfortable enough to do it. He’s happy for them and they honestly make him believe that love does exist – they’re a good match and he knows how happy Monty makes him.

“I’m not doing it.”

Thirty minutes later, he finds himself on the fucking roof again with the leather jacket slung over his shoulders. Raven can be very persuasive. They’re standing in the group and he realizes how much thought Raven really did put into this. Everyone is here and dressed up – Murphy and Emori, Octavia and Lincoln, Miller and Monty. Hell, even Luna came dressed as a Pink Lady.

“Where the hell is Clarke?” Raven hisses to Luna when she arrives. He has no idea who Clarke is, but Raven has already made more friends in her short time here than he has since he moved in. So, no surprises there.

“She’s always late, you know that,” Luna rolls her eyes, “She’ll be here.”

“Yo, Danny,” Raven calls and it takes him a moment to realize she’s talking to him, “Go grab me a beer.”

“I’m sorry, are you incapable?” he snaps and runs a hand through his hair, only for his fingers to get stuck in the hair gel.

She flips him the finger and he shuffles over to the table. Not because she told him too, he was already going to come here. He’ll just be nice and grab her a beer while he’s over here. Because he’s polite. And definitely not because she told him to. He reaches into the cooler to dig around for his favorite – he’s sticking to beer tonight. He has to teach in the morning.

He feels a familiar pull and knows she’s there before she speaks.

“Wow,” she says as he stands up, the buckles of his jacket clanking together, “Nice outfit.”

He turns slowly and before he can control it, his jaw opens slightly. It’s the Princess, alright, except she isn’t a princess at all. She’s dressed in a tight black body suit, and it’s clinging to every luscious curve of her body, paired with a leather jacket eerily similar to his own. He’s seen Grease enough time to recognize a Sandy when he sees one. He practically chokes on air. He looks over his head to see the others watching him and Raven is looking extremely smug which makes him think she had something to do with this. He has no idea how she could know, or how she could possibly be involved. But if anybody could figure it out, it’s her.

“I’m Luna’s roommate,” she seems to read his mind and she extends her hand with a half-smile, “Clarke Griffin.”

“You weren’t here last year,” he says stupidly. He should introduce himself. Compliment her outfit because, damn. But all he can think about is that she wasn’t here last year.

She drops her hand and glances down at her feet sheepishly, “I was working. New nurses always have to work holidays.”

“Oh,” he responds and still can’t figure out what to say. She’s been living in this building the whole time and he never once ran into her? She never tried to find him despite their almost hook up two three years ago? Holy shit this has been going on that long?

“I guess this is as weird for you as it is for me?” she asks, “I can leave, if you want. I know we’ve kind of been like…weirdly intimate but don’t really know each other? And, honestly, I gave up when you showed up with a girlfriend but now you’re here and Raven said you’re single and you look really hot in that costume…”

It’s this precise moment that his brain actually decides to function and he laughs, watching as this girl he’s been dancing around for four years on the same day rambles away about their strange relationship and admittedly having a crush on him, similar to the way he’s felt about her. She’s been sort of his own little tradition – like every Halloween he goes to the roof to talk to this mysterious girl about all the things he was afraid to admit outloud to everyone else. And she’s fucking real and standing in front of him in a matching costume because, surpise, she actually knows his friends and lives two floors below him. What are the fucking odds.

He’s having a hard time processing it all and wants to claim insanity when he slides a hand into her thick curls and surges forward to kiss her. She stiffens and he pulls away, heart pounding in his chest and feeling completely disoriented.

“Shit, that was weird,” he panics, “I’m Bellamy. But you probably already know that and…God, I’m sorry.”

She laughs then, sweet and shy as her eyes search his own frantic ones, “No offense, Bellamy, but we’ve been talking for four years. Aren’t you tired?”

She doesn’t need to ask twice. He kisses her again and faintly hears the Pink Ladies and the T-birds in the background hooting and hollering in their approval. It’s bizarre. But Halloween is a bizarre holiday and honestly, he might not hate it so much after all.


End file.
